Taft man stabbed, suspect claims self defense

Monday

May 12, 2014 at 11:12 AM

Victim is in stable condition. Suspect told officers that victim and another man attacked him

Doug KeelerMidway Driller Editor

One Taft man is in the hospital, recovering from a stab wound, another is in jail charged with assault with a deadly weapon and Taft Police are still investigating to see if the suspect's self defense claim is justified.

The stabbing took place Saturday evening about 7:30 p.m. in an alley at Fifth and Lucard Street.

Police got involved when the victim Christopher Soles, was driven to the Westside Urgent Care suffering from a stab wound to the chest.

Officers tried to question Soles while he awaited transportation to Bakersfield, but he was uncooperative, Lt. Pete Aranda said.

Soles was rushed from the urgent care by ambulance to a helipad at Elk Hills Gate 2 where he was transferred to a helicopter and flown to Kern Medical Center.

He is in stable condition at last report, Aranda said.

Soles told an officer at the clinic he was attacked at a convenience store in Ford City, but another officer remembered seeing two subjects who were out of breath he had seen minutes earlier in the area of Fifth and Lucard. That officer checked the area and located them.

He questioned one man, identified as Matthew Austin Gullo, 21, and a 17-year-old female juvenile.

Gullo told officers that he had been attacked by Soles and another man and stabbed Soles in self defense.Gullo was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

He was being held Monday morning in the Kern County Sheriff's central receiving facility in Bakersfield on $25,000 bail.

The female juvenile was booked on an unrelated warrant.

Aranda said police are still investigating the case and attempting to locate the second man that Gullo said attacked him.